Peace Offering
by x0-vindicated-0x
Summary: Upon winning a bet, Casey holds all of the power control Derek right in her hands. How will she make her dear stepbrother pay for all he's done in the past? And how can he defeat her? Written for degrassichick the FlashFic challenge.


**Peace Offering**

**This was written for the flashfic challenge, and it was written for degrassichick. Hope you like it. I wasn't sure if you cared if it had Dasey or not, but Allie claimed you probably wouldn't mind. It just had such Dasey potential.**

**Anyway, here was the plot requested;**

**'Casey and Derek betting against each other, loser has to do whatever the winner asks. Casey wins and forces Derek to do insane things at her request (including buying tampons, and other really random things that a guy like Derek would NEVER do.)'**

**Read on. :) **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek.**

"Come on, Casey." Derek begged, trailing along behind her. "Can't you learn to be just a _little_ leniant, for once?"

"Nuh-uh." Casey argued, a smug smile plastered across her face. "Not going to happen, Derek. It's about time _someone_ gave you what you deserved."

Derek paused for a moment, as though an unwanted thought had just occured to him.

"If any other girl had said that to me-" he said, looking dazed as he shook his head. "Ugh, never mind. Point is, I think you're being a _little_ bit harsh."

"Harsh?" Casey laughed, turning around with her arms folded across her chest. "Please, Derek. You can dish, but you can't take? What are you, a wuss?"

"I'm plenty of things." he smirked as she walked down the hallway again, the superior look never leaving her face. He began to tick them off on his fingers. "Sexy, charming, charismatic-"

"-selfish, arrogant, pig-headed... oh, and have I mentioned the world's biggest-"

"_Casey_!" he hissed, glancing over his shoulder nervously at the few students who were still roaming the hallways. "Keep it down, okay? I don't need the whole school knowing that I-" he dropped his voice below a whisper. "_-lost a bet to you._" he finished, shuddering in disgust. "_Especially_ not a bet like that one. Something like that gets out, and my reputation is _so_ shot."

Casey pulled her locker open, smirking at her blushing stepbrother.

"Well then I suggest you suck it up, and face the consequences." she said, knowing that she had him cornered. She grabbed her English binder, tucking it under her arm. "After all, you wouldn't want something like that getting out and ruining your oh-so-wonderful _rep_, would you now?"

Derek's mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but it was painfully obvious that he was at a loss for words.

She laughed, loving the feeling of holding all of the power over his head.

"See you at home, _Der_." she teased, ruffling his hair. She started down the hallway, wanting nothing more than to burst out laughing at him, but she suddenly turned around again. "_Oh!_" she said, raising a finger to tell him to wait. "Before I forget, I need a ride home after school. And I need you to stop into the drugstore for me on the way."

Derek's face paled, and his eyes widened.

"F-For what?" he asked, sounding terrified.

She shrugged as though it was no big deal.

"I'm low on tampons." she said, trying not to laugh at the fact that her mother had picked up a new package the day before. "It'd be real great if you could just drop in and get them for me."

He narrowed his eyes at her, looking ready to kill.

"_Casey_..." he said dangerously, shaking his head in dismay.

"I _own_ you." she reminded him in a slightly singsong voice.

Derek looked very much like he wanted to argue, but he seemed to sense that this was a lost cause.

"See you after school, _Case_." he muttered through gritted teeth, before storming off towards his math class, trying desperately to ignore the echo of her laughter floating down the hallway.

- - - -

"So tell me again why Derek's driving you home from school... and buying you tampons... and er... pretty much everything Derek would _never _normally do." Emily said, shaking her head in surprise as she walked towards the door at the end of the school hallway. "Did he receive some sort of head injury since I saw him last?"

Casey laughed, clearly amused.

"No, he just lost the world's easiest bet." she sighed happily. Emily looked completely bewildered, and Casey rushed to explain. "Alright, you know that super scary haunted house they had downtown this weekend?"

Emily nodded.

"Of course, even I was scared." she said, shuddering. "I mean that creepy rooom with the killer clown? Talk about freaky."

Casey grinned.

"Apparantly, Derek thought so too." she smiled. "See, before we went in, we made a little bet. He knew that I was usually terrified of that sort of thing, so he thought I'd be easy prey. What he doesn't know is that, after watching all those scary movies with you, my fear sort of... evaporated. He made a bet with me that if I got scared, I'd have to do whatever he wanted for a week, and if he got scared, he'd do what I wanted."

As the girls stepped out into the mid-afternoon sun, Emily stopped and blinked at Casey in confusion.

"So then... why is Derek the one doing everything you tell him to?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Casey smiled at her pointedly.

Emily's jaw dropped.

"No way!" she raved, clearly shocked. "_Derek Venturi _got scared at a-"

Casey clamped her hand over Emily's mouth quickly, glancing around to make sure nobody had heard her loudmouth of a best friend. When it was clear that Emily knew not to have another outburst like that, Casey removed her hand again, grasping the strap of her bag.

"Don't spread it around, okay?" she said quietly.

Emily gave her a strange look.

"Casey, this is the sort of thing that would completely ruin Derek's reputation." she laughed. "Isn't that like, your dream?"

Casey sighed, clearly disappointed.

"Trust me, Em. If it were up to me, Derek would be begging our parents to let him transfer schools by now." she assured her friend, leaning against the brick exterior of the school building as she waited for Derek to exit. "But if I tell everyone, he has no reason to stick to his word, and then I can't watch him squirm."

Emily hesitated, but shrugged.

"Fair point." she admitted, laughing. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "So tell me, how scared did he get?"

Casey smirked.

"He _freaked._" she said, excitement clear in her voice. "Oh, you should've seen it. We got locked in that room, you know, the really narrow hall where the doors slam on either side of you. And then it goes pitch black and the werewolf-"

"Yeah, I get it." Emily said, wincing at the memory. "Go on."

"Anyway, this werewolf... er, thing... came up and grabbed Derek, and he thought it was me, but then I said his name on the other side of him, and he completely freaked out. By the time we got out of the haunted house, he was pale and shaky and... oh, I loved it."

"You're sadistic, you know that, right?" Emily laughed, clearly trying hard not to take sides between two of her friends. She failed. "It is... sort of funny though."

Just as the two girls burst into laughter, Derek stormed out the front door of the school, grabbing Casey roughly by the sleeve.

"You. Car. Now." he grumbled, dragging her the other way, then stopping, and turning back to Emily.

"Wait a second..." he said suspiciously. "What exactly were you two laughing at just know?"

Casey smirked, striding right past Derek smugly.

"Nothing, nothing at all." she said, knowing that Derek could see right through her little facade. "We've got so much to do, and so little time."

"You need a life, you know that, right?" he mumbled, before jamming his hands into his pockets, and following her to the parking lot.

- - - - -

"Keep going."

"But Caseyyy-

"Aisle four, Derek." she said, trying very hard to bite back laughter. "Come on, you act like it's... oh... I don't know, _embarassing_?"

"You're already in the store." Derek whined, rolling his eyes as she pushed him towards the right aisle. "Why can't you just buy them yourself?"

Casey laughed this time, unable to keep it in.

"Because I won this bet, and I plan on milking your one moment of weakness for all it's worth."

Derek groaned, but rolled his eyes, grabbing some random package of tampons off of a shelf, not even looking at it. He pushed past her and started down the aisle again, but she folded her arms across her chest and stayed put, smirking.

It took him a moment to realize that Casey wasn't behind him anymore. He turned slowly, squinting at her in confusion.

"Aren't you coming?" he asked, cringing as he sensed that she was about to ask something else of him.

She shook her head, and grabbed another package off of the shelf, tossing it to him.

"Wrong brand." she teased, walking up to him and taking the other package from his hands, replacing it on the shelf.

He glanced at the package that was now in his hands, and then craned his neck towards the rack to see the price. His eyes widened, and he turned to her again.

"These ones are three dollars more than the other ones!" he cried, clearly disbelieving. She shrugged, and his face fell. "Come on, Casey. These are expensive."

"I know." she said, smiling. "Good thing you're buying then, eh?"

- - - - - - -

Dinner passed almost uneventfully at the McDonald-Venturi household. Lizzie and Edwin spoke excitedly of an upcoming funfair at their school, Marti rambled on about how it had really been Daphne who had been sneaking extra Halloween candy away from the teachers desk, not her. Derek remained unusually silent, apparantly afraid that it would give Casey another idea to use against him. His gaze remained on his plate for most of his dinner.

That is, until his father brought up hockey.

"The playoffs are on tonight." George announced happily, not noticing that nobody but Derek seemed to care. "The living room will officially be off limits to anyone without the hockey spirit."

Derek grinned at his father, excitement clear in his eyes.

"Oh I'm in. I've got hockey spirit, trust me." he said quickly, shoveling the last bit of his chicken into his mouth, and taking a huge gulp of his water. "I'll go get my Oilers jersey."

He didn't notice the smirk that crept onto Casey's face as he started up the stairs. He had gotten halfway to the top when he heard Casey's sweet and innocent voice speak up from the room below.

"Derek won't be able to watch the game tonight." she said sweetly, taking a sip of her water. Derek froze on the third to last step, his eyes fixed on the wall ahead of him as he waited for her to continue. "He's got to study for a biology test. He's asked me for help, and tonight is really the only night I can do it."

He shut his eyes tightly, trying to drown out what had just happened. Nobody spoke, so he backtracked down to the bottom step, turning around with a false smile plastered across his face.

"Um, yeah..." he started, biting his lower lip as he racked his brain for a plausible lie. "The biology test. You see, I don't need your help anymore... yeah, that's it..." he lied slowly, before a look of complete confidence flickered across his face. "Thanks anyway."

He made to dart up the stairs again, but was stopped by his father's voice.

"Not so fast, Derek." he warned, and Derek groaned, before returning to the bottom step and giving his father a pained look. George sat up straighter, and gave his son a stern look. "Is this true? Did you ask Casey to help you?"

Derek glanced at Casey, who waited patiently for a response. He knew he could easily lie, but then she'd expose him to everyone, and he'd lose his status and popularity. But this was the_ playoffs_. Surely Casey had a drop of decency in her veins. She was always being a perfect little angel, why couldn't she stick to that reputation now?

He sighed, and glanced at Casey's imperious expression nervously.

"Yeah Derek, you did ask for help, didn't you?" she asked innocently, almost laughing. "I mean, the last thing you'd want is for the _whole school _to know that-"

His face paled, and he knew he had to cut her off immediately, before his entire family found out about the ordeal too. Lizzie and Edwin had been too scared themselves to even notice how freaked Derek was at the haunted house, but Derek knew that if his little brother knew how much of a wuss he'd shown himself as during his one moment of weakness, he'd lose all respect and fear that he held for his older brother. And that was all that gave Derek power over the kid.

"Um, maybe I did ask her for help." he lied, giving Casey a death glare. She smirked, and continued to eat her dinner, letting the events unfold in front of her manipulative little eyes.

Nora gave him a stern look.

"Derek, if you got Casey to give up her night to help you study, you really should study." she said, keeping her face serious. "And you need to pass biology."

"I'm passing biology." he shrugged, giving her a pleading look.

She frowned.

"Barely." she reminded him. "You're on the borderline of failing-"

"Which technically means I'm still passing." he smirked, willing to argue all day if it meant he could watch the playoffs. "Come on. Hockey is a very important part of any Canadian boy's life. Back me up here, Dad; am I right?"

George's eyes shot up to Derek's, begging him not to drag him into this, but Derek pretended as though he had no clue what his father was asking of him. George glanced over at Nora, who stared him down sternly, as though daring him to defy her authority in the matter. He quickly bowed his head, blushing.

"Listen to your stepmother, Derek." he said, his voice sounding forced. "You can always... tape the game... and... we'll watch it together later."

Derek's face fell, and he knew that once Nora had dragged his father down with him, he was fighting a losing battle. There was no point in arguing anymore. He gave Casey a death glare, and folded his arms.

"If you're helping, help now." he said, in hopes of finishing their studying before the hockey game was over. He was sure that she had no clue what time the game started or finished.

She gulped down the last of her water before standing up, smiling happily.

"With pleasure." she said, clearly loving the idea that she had full power over him. She straightened up and walked around the table, meeting him at the stairs. "Bye everyone."

There was a chorus of goodbyes as Derek turned and followed shamefully behind his stepsister, wishing with every fibre of his being that he had just kept his mouth shut and refrained from betting in the first place. He'd never admit, of course, that he hadn't sort of enjoyed clinging onto her during the haunted house. There had been one or two occasions, when he'd been so frightened that he had shuffled in closer to her, and could feel her hair in his face. He'd never admit that he liked the way it smelled of vanilla shampoo, because Derek Venturi would never admit his feelings about Casey. Because she was _Casey_. Despite the feelings he had for her, he still found her incredibly annoying. And besides that, she was his _stepsister. _

The second they were out of earshot of the family, he let his anger out.

"You just had to do it, didn't you?" he hissed, following her into her bedroom, wanting to break off and rip every single one of her textbooks to shreds. "I mean it's bad enough you made me carry your books around all day. I was late to every single one of my classes because you had a ten minute bathroom stop to fix your makeup between classes. Then you made me _purposely _answer every single question right in history class by slipping me the answers. That made me look like a nerd. Then you _deliberately _picked the cash register at the drugstore where Brittany Stoyles was working, when you _know_ she's one of the hottest girls in school. I mean, how stupid do you think I looked, buying _tampons?_ Especially since you chose to be nowhere near me at the time."

She smirked.

"I was near enough to take a picture." she informed him, taking a seat on her bed, and opening up her biology book.

His face paled completely, and he shook his head at her, his eyes narrowed into angry slits.

"You didn't."

"Oh, but I did."

She reached into her back pocket, extracting a folded up piece of paper, one clearly printed off of the computer. When she unfolded it, he was horrified to see that she wasn't lying; she really had managed to capture one of the most embarassing moments of his entire life on camera.

He blushed, and made a mad grab for the picture, practically diving onto her bed and flattening her down. He wrestled desperately for the picture, grasping at her wrists frantically, but she held it behind her back, too far down for Derek's hands to wander.

He gave up, defeated, and flopped down next to her onto the bed, panting.

"You... are pure... evil." he growled, thinking to himself that she did put up a pretty good fight.

She smirked, rolling onto her side and propping herself up on one elbow.

"I know." she said proudly, grinning at him. "But I'm a girl, we're entitled to be evil... once a month anyway."

Derek glanced up at her, shaking his head.

"Too much information." he decided, shuddering. "Anyway, do I really have to study?"

Casey smiled.

"Yup."

He frowned.

"With... books?"

"Yep." she said, folding the picture back up and storing it in her back pocket.

His eyes widened.

"And... like... notes?" he got out, shocked.

"Yep." she sighed happily, tossing him her notebook as she skimmed through her textbook. "Now read. I'm quizzing you later."

"But-"

"Read."

"But I-"

"Now."

He sighed, practically ripping the notebook open to spite her.

"Fine." he murmered, skimming over the first few lines, and instantly feeling drowsiness overcome him. He tried to snap himself out of it. He had to stay awake. Staying awake was the only way he'd pass Casey's stupid littlw quiz later, and then he'd be free from studying. He tried to concentrate on the first line of her notes.

_'The animal cell is made up of...'_

"I can't do this." he decided, snapping the book shut. "Too many words."

She glanced over at him in disbelief.

"Derek, you've been reading for twenty seconds." she said, sounding cautious. "How far did you get?"

Derek flipped the notebook open again, and pressed his finger down upon the seventh word.

"Here." he said proudly, smirking. "See? I can study."

She remained silent, staring at him as though she wanted to kill him. He knew that reading seven words clearly wasn't a good enough accomplishment for her, so he sighed, feeling an unexplainable pang of disappointment in himself for proving himself again and again to be outsmarted by a girl. He felt himself grow angrier. Just because he couldn't read a couple of stupid biology notes, didn't mean he wasn't better at her in other things. Her insistance that she was a better person than him, just because she had a near perfect grade point average, was really starting to piss him off.

"Wipe that degrading look off your face." he snarled, grabbing the notebook and tossing it down onto the floor.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?" she asked, sounding slightly offended.

"You know exactly what I mean." he snapped, sitting up straight and glaring down at her. "You think you're so much better than me because you're _Casey McDonald_. You get perfect grades, you have perfect friends, all the teachers love you... but that doesn't make you a good person, Casey. That makes you a freakin' nerd. It's no wonder no guys even turn their heads at you."

Her smug look of superiority quickly disappeared off of her face, and was replaced by hurt. He saw it flicker helplessly through her eyes as she turned back to her book, her hair falling in strands around her eyes as she tried to hide her emotions. He knew instantly that he'd gone too far. He hadn't meant to say those things. He was just sick of being looked over in their family because of her.

"Casey, I'm-"

"Just go." she said, not giving him a chance to finish. He remained silent, and she raised her head up to look at him, her expression hurt and angry. "Didn't you hear me? I said go. Get out."

"No." he said firmly, shaking his head. "Not when we aren't done here."

"We're done, okay?" she said, cringing. "You don't have to sit here. Go watch the stupid game with your father."

He frowned.

"But the bet-" he started, unsure of why he was fighting her on this.

She shook her head.

"The bet is off." she said quietly, staring at her quilt again. "You've done all you have to do, okay? Just leave."

He bent down to pick up her fallen biology book, and he placed it gently on the bed before crossing her bedroom to the doorway, where he stopped. It was a rare occurance when his feelings for Casey dominated his urge to just act his usual, arrogant self. His foolish attraction to her shouldn't stop him from leaving that room with the knowledge that he had won, and going to watch the game with his father. But he glanced over his shoulder and saw her staring off into space and he sighed, wincing at the pain he'd caused.

Stupid, unconventional emotions.

He turned around, drawing in a deep breath.

"What if I were to suggest a peace offering?" he sighed, folding his arms across his chest.

She looked up, her eyes still hurt, but clearly interested. She shifted on her bed so that she was sitting cross-legged, facing him.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her eyebrows scrunched together curiously. "I don't understand."

He closed her door again, and walked towards her slowly, his hands in his pockets now.

"Well, it's quite simple really." he explained, taking a seat on the edge of her bed so that they were eye level with each other. "There's one thing that I'm willing to do, as my final payment to this bet, that nobody would expect me to do in like... a million years."

She raised an eyebrow, brightening a bit.

"I'm listening..." she said slowly, hanging onto his every word.

He cleared his throat, ready to do the one thing that he knew she would enjoy seeing. This was going to be the most humiliating task that would come out of this bet. But he'd be ending the bet, and letting one of his deepest secrets out; it was like killing two birds with one stone.

"Well, you see... there's this girl." he started, shifting to make himself comfortable.

She rolled her eyes.

"Of course there is." she sighed, clearly not surprised that this had to do with a girl. He gave her a pointed look, and relaxed. "Go on."

Derek nodded, gulping nervously.

"Well, she's sort of... different from all the other girls I've dated." he explained slowly, tracing the pattern of her quilt with his pointer finger. "I mean, she's beautiful-"

Casey snorted.

"Don't you mean sexy, hot, a total _babe_?" she asked disapprovingly, giving him a disgusted stare.

To her surprise, he shook his head.

"Nope." he argued, sounding confident. "Beautiful is the only word for it." he decided, and she gave him a surprised nod. "Anyway, she's beautiful-"

"Therefore up to your standards, I'm sure." she decided, sighing. "If a girl is good looking, she's automatically-"

"She's a bit of a super-keener." he finished, not wanting her to finish that statement.

Casey's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wow." she mused, nodding in appreciation. "There's a first for you, Showing interest in a girl who can probably count past ten without taking her shoes off?"

Derek blushed, but went on, knowing that if he stopped now, he'd chicken out.

"She gets really good grades, and she's super smart." he said, sounding oddly proud. "She's probably the complete opposite of every girl I've ever dated, and if I asked her out, I'm almost positive that my reputation would be shattered... or... it would shock people, at the very least."

She bit her lip, the look in her eyes stating that she was thinking this over very carefully.

"So what are you suggesting?" she asked, sounding uncertain. "You're willing to ask out this girl, and risk shattering your entire reputation?"

Derek nodded without hesitance. This had to be done. He wasn't too worried. He'd been exaggerating a bit. He knew asking Casey out wouldn't really shatter his reputation. It might put it on shaky ground for awhile, but he was popular enough to bounce back. Besides, his feelings for Casey couldn't go unnoticed any longer.

"Yes." he informed her, taking a deep breath. "So are you up for the bet?"

She chewed her bottom lip for a moment, lost in thought. Finally, she grinned and nodded, sticking out her hand for him to shake. He shook it, and watched as she smirked at him.

"So what are you going to do about your fall from grace?" she asked, clearly trying hard not to laugh. "I mean, you ask this girl out, and it's all over for you, by the sounds of it."

Derek shrugged.

"It all depends on if she says yes." he said, and he knew she could spot the slight nervousness that was dancing in his eyes as he spoke his next word. "But that's really up to you."

Casey froze, and she stared at him with a mixture of shock and disbelief. He waited, anxiety ripping at his heart painfully.

"Up to... up to me?" she stammered, looking unsure of her words. "What do you mean by that?"

He shifted a little closer to her, leaning his face in close to hers.

"I think it's pretty clear what I meant by that." he whispered, his face only inches from hers. "I'm asking you out on a date. I'm sticking to my last part of the bet. So what do you think?" he asked, watching as the shock disappeared from her face, and was filled by an emotion that he couldn't quite pinpoint. "Will you-"

He was cut off unexpectedly when she placed her hand on the back of his head and pulled him into a kiss. His lips crashed with hers gently, but urgently, and he was suddenly glad that he had closed her bedroom door again. He placed his hands on her hips, pulling her closer, and one of her hands pressed against his chest gently, while the other remained tangled through his hair. So many thoughts and emotions were racing through his mind at the moment, that he could barely even think. All he could concentrate on was the way her lips moved on his, and the way it felt so right to him.

When they both pulled back sometime later, only for lack of air, Derek kept his face within an inch of hers, her breath still lingering on his lips as she struggled to catch her breath. He tried to let his mind return to a normal pace as he trailed his fingers along the sliver of skin above the waistband of her jeans, the feel of it tickling his fingertips.

"So does this mean you accept my peace offering, and the date?" he asked, smirking slightly. "Is the bet over?"

She grinned, pulling him closer until their lips were almost touching again. His eyes scanned hers once more as she spoke.

"Consider it paid." she said, before pulling him in for another kiss.

Derek smiled against her lips; maybe losing a bet wasn't such a bad thing afterall.

* * *


End file.
